More needs to be done to normalize the speaking of Indigenous languages by GNWT employees, especially in smaller communities, according to Brenda Gauthier, the territory’s official languages commissioner.
Gauthier made the comments on Feb. 17 during a hearing on her first annual report since taking over the role. The meeting was held by the Legislative Assembly’s Standing Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Yellowknife North MLA Rylund Johnson.
Gauthier said that during her three-decade career in the GNWT prior to becoming the official languages commissioner, she and her colleagues often had discussions about the lack of Indigenous language use.
“Why don’t we hear GNWT employees speaking the Indigenous languages in the office? Why aren’t the GNWT employees and ministers using translators when they go into the communities to meet the people or the various Indigenous governments?”
She said new GNWT staff are still not informed of the translation services that are available to them.
“I strongly believe that when any government, including the GNWT, goes into an Indigenous government’s region, they should be speaking the language of that region,” she said.
Gauthier also said her office is beginning to receive more complaints about the use of English within the GNWT, although she said it was too early to provide more detail on these complaints.
In her report, she referenced “alarming” data from the NWT Bureau of Statistics about the decline of Indigenous language use in the NWT — between 1989 and 2014, the percentage of the population who could speak an Indigenous language declined from 55.6 per cent to 38.5 per cent. By contrast, the 2016 NWT Census indicated that the number of people who spoke French as their mother tongue was on the rise, especially in younger age groups.
Gauthier has been languages commissioner for just over a year, and for about six months of the timeframe captured in the report. She acknowledged that her comments were mostly focused on Indigenous languages rather than French. However, she said, “We’re living in a time when there’s a lot of focus on the Indigenous languages around the world and in Canada, and I also hope that these changes are made to the legislation to strengthen the recognition of Indigenous languages.”